Track hoes and like machinery are often used for digging through hard soil, pavement, and the like. As a result, shovels are sized such that the hydraulics powering the shovel can apply sufficient force to drive a relatively small shovel through the soil or pavement. The articulated arm and hydraulics of the arm are therefore capable of carrying much more material than can be lifted with the shovel. In use, great inefficiencies arise as a shovel sized for penetrating soil is used to transport soil, broken pavement, and other materials into a container such as a dump truck or dumpster. The steps of scooping, lifting, and dumping the undersized shovel must be repeated an excessive number of times in order to load materials broken up by the shovel.
It would therefore be an advancement in the art to provide a system and method for loading, lifting, and dumping large amounts of loose material using a track hoe that took greater advantage of the power and capability of the articulated arm and associated hydraulics of the track hoe.